Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or Dragonball Z.

Notes: Thanks A3, glad you like the story - Over 1000 hits and only 3 reviews :cries: - oh well

Dialogue:

"…" - normal speech.

'In italics' - thoughts

-: Flashback :-

Chapter 3 - 3 Years Later

The square metal structure still stood firm, glowing slightly every few seconds since it had last been used 3 years ago. In the darkness, a faint light shone down from the roof of the confined room. At that moment the machine gave out a low whine that rapidly increased deeply in volume and abruptly flashed a blinding display of pure light. Shaking could be felt in the large sized room as bits began to fall through the gap above. When it subsided, blue swirls could be seen within the square that containing them. Suddenly, two figures where thrown out of it and into the now semi-illuminated room.

Landing face first, the body to the left winced in pain, while the other landed on his backside. Rubbing his face, the individual to the left got up and looked at his partner who was also in pain. "Chikusho Naruto! Why didn't you tell me the re-entry was worse, i could have at least prepared myself from slamming face first into the floor!" He said in anger, still soothing his red face.

The teen looked up at his friend and laughed, "Sorry Gohan, i guess it must have slipped my mind." he snickered. After stifling another outburst from looking at his companion again, the spiky blonde stood up and walked around. By this time the machine had once again deactivated. Now there was hardly any light in the room with the only two sources being the hole Naruto had made several years ago and the faint pulse of the metal square behind.

"If i hadn't experienced it myself i wouldn't have believed it! Though the transition itself is a little bumpy, it is an amazing piece of technology." The tall black haired fighter slid his hand down the machine which had now reverted back into stand-by mode. He looked at the inside and found the control panel. "So it's the exact same as the one on my world."

"Don't you mean our world?" Naruto imposed as he walked back over to the machine.

"Ah yeah, sorry, you know what i meant..." resuming his inspection, "... but for someone to make this, its... well it's incredible. The writing is also the same on this side too; 'Those who seek their worth are bound by the strength of their resolve'... it's in English, a writing that hasn't been used for a millennia! No one i know of could have built such a device, especially in that time!" He exclaimed. "Bulma's the worlds leading brain box on these kinds of things and even she can't create a stable dimensional wormhole like this!" He turned back to Naruto who gave him a raised eyebrow.

"...Yet." he finished Gohan's assessment.

"Haha, i guess your right, i wouldn't put it past her. I mean she did create a pod that could travel time, fortunately for us it travelled dimensions too as you well know." The tall teen sighed.

Naruto put his hand on his friends shoulder, "Hey, come on Gohan that was a long time ago. Don't blame yourself, i know you'll see him again." he comforted his depressed comrade.

"Yeah, you're right and you'll meet him too." Gohan smiled as he turned around. "So what's our next stop? Don't you want to see your village again?"

Naruto frowned at his friend, "I told you, it's not my village anymore and hasn't been for a long time. They treated me worse then trash my whole life for having a burden put on me from the moment I was born and had no control over. All i want to do is see a few people one more time before i leave this place behind forever."

"You're right, i'm sorry." Now it was his turn to do the comforting, "So, where do we go from here?" He looked up to the hole in the roof. "I'm guessing that's how you found this place?" He inquired.

Naruto chuckled, "Yeah well i couldn't get out at the time and being my curious self i had to take a look around. Anyway, let's get out of here, i can barely see anything." With that they walked to the space beneath the gap and without hesitation, launched themselves in the air and through the hole one after the other. Gohan followed Naruto as he landed on the beach of the island where he was washed up those few years ago.

They looked out to the incoming tide that crept up the shore. The sun was out and shining brightly as their eyes adjusted to the light. Naruto had grown a lot in the time he had been away. He was around 4ft6 when he left and now, 3 years later he had shot up to 6ft-ish. However, the rapid growth hadn't affected his body which had also filled out giving him a muscular frame. His hair had also grown out as it brushed past the top of his eyes and extended down the side of his face, but also kept the spiky features on top. He wore a long deep blue jacket that was short at the middle and had the Capsule-Corp logo on the shoulder, courtesy of Bulma which he treasured, with a white muscle top underneath. He had a black set of baggy pants and white trainers. His eyes were an endless blue and just as radiant since his departure. Naruto's face had matured aswell as his mind. The most noticeable aspect was his famed whiskers that everyone associated with him, could no longer be seen.

Landing beside him, Gohan took note of the way his friend surveyed the landscape. He was about a 2ft taller than Naruto, his hair was cut short and spiky and coloured jet black that matched his eyes. Wearing a dark gray jacket that fit him to perfection and had various pockets dotted around, he also sported a red shirt underneath with the words 'FIGHT' written across in white. He wore dark jeans that tinted white down the sides and he displayed the same trainers as Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, what's up? Gohan asked.

"Oh, it's just... this is place where i washed up after killing the sea monster." He laughed, "At that time i thought i would die here on this island alone, but now i know it was a blessing in disguise. I wonder if they think i'm dead. They'd probably have declared me a 'Missing-Nin' for the first 2 years, and then dead the next. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces, it'll be priceless." He snickered

Gohan had been around him long enough to know what he was thinking before he thought it. Essentially they were brothers in spirit. "Naruto... what are you planning? I don't think they'd appreciate such a scare, especially since you say they all hate you and would probably want you dead if they saw you again."

"Aww.. well i guess your right. Hopefully i can avoid most of them and just talk to the few i've missed." He added. Pausing for a moment, Naruto scratched his head and then looked at his brother. "Umm, now that i think about... since i got washed up here unconsciously, i don't know which direction Konoha is in." He said sheepishly.

Gohan rolled his eyes, that was Naruto for you. "Okay, well i guess i'll just have to sense for any Ki signatures since i have the best control and experience." He said and closed his eyes. The Z warrior searched for signatures of any kind... but there was none. He tried again, still nothing, no trace of anyone. Gohan came to two conclusions. One; they could mask their signatures very well and therefore be undetectable. Two; there was no one on the planet that had a Ki signature of any kind, or at least by his and Naruto's standards. He decided to go with the latter from what Naruto had told him about the people from his home world.

"Hmm, that's strange… I can't sense anyone at all. It might be that their signatures are too weak for me to pinpoint this far away." Gohan suggested.

"Yeah you're probably right; remember when we first began to train. That was a nightmare for me." He grimaced, "Well looks like we'll have to do this the old fashioned way then."

They nodded to each other. Letting a low Ki flame engulf them, the pair sprung from the ground and into the air cruising above the clouds, cutting through the sky at an alarming rate.

The two fighters had been flying at a very slow pace considering their maximum, for the last 15 minutes. The ocean just kept on going endlessly. Finally they saw land ahead and descended, landing just off shore on a small hilltop. Gohan noticed a small town a few miles away and pointed it out to Naruto. Deciding it would be in their best interest to find out where they where and then plan their next action from there, they bounded over the land that lay between at a moderate pace. A few seconds later the duo came to nearing the entrance of the town and slowed their pace to a walk.

As they entered the town, people looked up them with wide eyes. It wasn't fear, just curiosity. Naruto looked around the people and back to his brother. "Heh, must be the clothing, i new it wasn't such a good idea. This may cause some unwanted attention." he whispered.

"Hmm, you're right oh well, right now attention is what we need to find where we are." Gohan said

The two fighters walked over to a small shop and went inside. The Z warrior ventured round the shop while he left his friend to the talking. Naruto strolled over the shopkeeper who had been stunned by the two the moment they came in the shop. "Hello sir, excuse me, but would you mind telling me where we are… we seem to be a little lost." The blonde asked. The tenant, who had been in somewhat of a trance like state, snapped out of his gaze when the teen spoke.

"Uh.. yeah, sure. You're in a town called Riluji on the south-east coast of the Water Country." The shopkeeper answered.

"Ah, the Hidden Mist is the shinobi village of this country right?"

"Yeah..." was all the short man could muster.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Ok, do you know which way it is to the Fire Country?" he inquired

"Yeah it's to the west from here.." he responded, pointing the direction out to them.

"Ah right, thanks alot for your help mister. Hey Gohan, come on i got the right way to the Fire Country now." He called and started moving for the door.

The man ran frantically around his desk towards the blonde teen. "Wait, you two don't look like you're from around here. What business do you have in the Fire Country?" the stumpy man said, now asking the questions.

Naruto turned around and looked at the shopkeeper with a serious look in his eyes, "We're just going to visit the Hidden Leaf Village to meet some old friends." he replied casually.

"Well i don't know if you're aware of this but the Leaf and their allies, the Sand are currently on the edge of War between the Sound and Cloud Villages. It could happen anytime now and you'd be caught right in the middle of it if you went. It would be suicide." the man spoke with distress in his voice.

The blonde fighter smiled, "Thanks for your concern mister, but we'll be fine. Oh and thanks for informing me of the situation. Its nice to know some people are still kind to strangers." and with that he headed out of the shop followed closely by Gohan.

Once they where outside, they started walking again and conversed, "So it seems that your former village is about to go to war with others, at least they've got an ally to back them up." Gohan started.

"Yeah, even though i hate the, for what they did to me, i don't want to see them suffer like that and besides i like the sand so i don't want anything to happen to them..." He trailed off, 'I wonder how Gaara and his siblings are doing...' Naruto thought. That last time he saw them was on the Sasuke retrieval mission. As Naruto had grown the past few years he'd matured a great deal mentally as well as physically while training with Gohan. Now he didn't resent the Uchiha for the path he took, instead he pitied him for being corrupted so easily by the pursuit of power.

The Z warrior looked to his brother who was deep in thought, never had he thought he would be doing anything like this. Since Naruto had showed up 3 years ago, his life got better every day finally finding someone who could understand him and was his own age. They'd been through good times and bad, always side by side to help each other. The Son family had accepted Naruto as one of their own with ease and he cared for them just as they did him. Goten, who had been born 7 years got on with Naruto so well. The two were the same level in strength right now and always sparred when they weren't busy. Gohan smiled at how quickly Naruto developed over the few years, somehow, someway, he reminded him of his father.

Seeing that his thoughts had ended, Gohan spoke as they exited the town, "So what's the direction? It would be best to get there before nightfall and check ourselves in to a hotel or something."

"Hm, oh yeah.. good idea, it's to the west. Come on, this way" the blonde replied as he bounded off across the plane at a leisurely pace. Gohan matched his speed and pursued him just behind.

They'd been going for a short while when they heard screams coming from a near by ravine. They changed course to check it out and hid in a large tree above the commotion below to analyse the situation. There were 3 Ninjas and a little girl. Naruto recognised them as Grass Ninja from their forehead protector. The three had appeared to be carrying the small girl when she made a run for it. Now asleep, one of them threw her over his back and started walking away with his comrades trailing. Not going to sit by and while this transpired, the two warriors jumped down to stop the 3 Ninjas, Gohan behind and Naruto in front.

Stunned by the sudden appearance, the Grass Shinobi frantically got into battle positions dropping the girl to the dirt. Naruto was disgusted by how this poor, young girl had been treated. She couldn't be more than 5 years old. He folded his arms, "I hope you realise that you are outclassed in every possible way, let the girl go and no harm will come to you." Naruto spoke in a ragged cold voice.

By now the tallest Nin had regained his composure and looked over the two newcomers. He grinned evilly, "Ha, you two aren't even Ninjas and you think you can take on 3 elite Grass Chunnin! What funny clothes you wear aswell, this should be fun." He pulled out a Kunai and launched at the blonde.

A moment before impact, Naruto tilted his head to the right evading the lunge in and instant and kneed the leader to the gut. Collapsing to the floor, the Chuunin lay there gripping his stomach and then fell unconscious. His comrades gasped at what they had just witnessed. A strangely clothed civilian just took down one of their Villages most elite Chuunin in the blink of an eye. What was worse was the fact that the teen didn't even use any chakra either, it was pure speed. They shook and backed-up until they hit something behind them. It was the other stranger.

Gohan towered over the two Grass shinobi. Smiling as they turned to gaze at him, he quickly hit them in the back of the head knocking them out. "So what do we do with these guys?" He asked Naruto.

"Hm, this girl they were kidnapping must have come from somewhere; I'll try and find out." He walked up to the unconscious girl that lay on the ground. Slowly he shook her and whispered "Wake-up" in her ear. Suddenly she woke up and screamed at the top of her lungs. Naruto and Gohan winced feeling their ears about to explode. "Hey, calm down... hey.. HEY!" he shouted.

The young girl stopped and stared at Naruto with tears in her eyes. "Please! Leave me alone!" she screamed closing her eyes.

"Hey, we're not going to hurt you, we beat up those bad men who were taking you away." Naruto said in a soothing voice. The girl looked up and noticed the bodies of her Assailants on the ground, non responsive. "See, we want to help you. Do you live anywhere near here?" The blonde fighter asked slowly.

The brown haired girl nodded, "Yeah i live in the Village of the Hidden Mist." she sniffled out.

"Ok we'll go take you back to your village" Naruto said as he got up and walked over to Gohan who had been looking through each of the Grass Shinobi's clothing to find any information on what they wanted with her. He had some papers in his right hand.

"Hey Gohan, did you find anything on these guys?"

"I got no information on why the abducted the girl..." he hesitated, "... but i got something else. Each of them was carrying one of these." He handed the sheets of paper to Naruto.

Naruto studied it carefully and then looked up to his brother, "They're Jounin assessment papers for an exam that's going to be held in Konoha in a few days." Naruto informed his companion. Suddenly a smile formed on his lips. Gohan never liked that mischievous look as something bad always came of it.

"What have you got planned this time Naruto?" he asked with unease.

"Why, a mission of course!" Naruto grinned with excitement. "The first part of which is to return this girl to her family in the Hidden Mist Village.." he said whilst folding the papers and putting them inside his inside jacket pocket "... which shouldn't be too far from here. Come one, if we go now, they may let us stay the night and provide us with some information about this 'upcoming war'." He sauntered over to the Leader and picked him up by his clothes in his left hand. He then walked over to the girl and extended his right hand to her. "Come on kid, we'll take you back and your village and they can punish these nasty men for their crimes." Liking the sound of that, the girl gripped his free hand. Naruto wrapped his arm round her waist and called back to Gohan. "Come on bro, we'll have to do this the fun way." And with that he shot off into the air. The taller teen sighed and grabbed the two remaining Grass Ninjas and chased after him.

Meanwhile, the girl frantically wrestled against Naruto's grip trying to break free whilst screaming with fear. "Hey! I told you i'm not going to hurt you, we're just taking this mode of transport since it's the fastest to get you back." The girl began to quieten down a little. "So, what's your name kid?" he asked

"Relia" she answered, meekly.

"Well then Relia, I'm Naruto and my friend is Gohan, its nice to meet you, though the circumstances could have been better." She giggled, "So do you know why these bad men were after you?"

"I heard one of them say that i have a special blood-limit that they wanted." She responded, still shy.

Naruto had heard of such cases before. Someone had told him that a cloud Nin had once tried to kidnap Hinata when she was young but was thankfully stopped. The way the girl acted even reminded him of the shyness of Hinata. He still couldn't put his finger on why she always acted that way around him that way. Waking up from his daydream, he noticed the borders of a village below. He turned to Relia who was also looking at the sight. "Is that your village Relia?"

"Yeah that's it!" she shouted

"Right then, we're going down!" He exclaimed as he descended into the village.

From the streets below people heard a distant voice in the sky. Passers by looked up and stopped whatever they were doing as two strangers set-down in the street in front of them, their eyes widened as they landed. 'These boys just flew in to the village!' was all that the civilians could think as they panicked and screamed. A few seconds later 3 Jounin and 5 Chuunin appeared around the pair. The Mist Nin gave a confused look. The strangers wore bizarre garments and held what appeared to be shinobi in their hands. What was even more surprising to them was how one of them had Relia-sama under his arm. One of the Jounin stepped forward. "Release Relia-sama at once!" he ordered.

"Hey, hey, no need to get angry, we were just helping out." Naruto calmly stated as he let of Relia. She stood on her own feet and walked around Naruto.

The little girl spoke up with confidence in her voice, "I was kidnapped by these men." she began as Naruto and Gohan let go of the Grass Ninjas and they dropped to the dirt. "And then Naruto and Gohan came and rescued me and beat the bad men up! Then they flew me back to the Village!" She ended with a bounce of happiness.

The Mist Nin where shocked at what they just heard, 'Did she just say 'flew'!' They all thought. After snapping out of his bewildered state, the Jounin spoke once more. "Ok you two we are going to have to take you to the Mizukage and you can explain it to him!"

"Okay, sure, lead the way." Naruto replied as he and Gohan walked side by side surrounded by Mist Shinobi to the Mizukage's office. Upon entering the Mizukage tower, the blonde teen was slightly reminded of his adventure days as Leaf Ninja. The finally entered the office to find the Mist Kage deep in paperwork, the guards took positions around them inside. The Mizukage looked up at the two newcomers to the village and raised an eyebrow, and then nearly fell off his chair from shock when he looked at the teen in the blue jacket.

'It.. it can't be.. he l-looks just like the fourth Hokage. B-but he didn't have any offspring, i must be mistaken. Probably going crazy from being up here all day' The Mizukage concluded and regained his composure. "So you are the two that rescued Relia, correct?" he enquired.

They nodded in unison as Naruto spoke up, "Yeah it looked like she was in trouble so we helped her out." he sheepishly replied.

"Well thank-you for the assistance, without you we would most likely never have seen her again." A small smile crept on his lips, "You two don't look like you're from around here, what type of clothes are you wearing?"

"Uh these, um well..." He looked at Gohan who just shrugged. Naruto rolled his eyes, "... ah.. we made them ourselves, heh, yeah that's right. It's a new design of clothing, its going to become the most wanted clothing across the land soon. Heh heh.." He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. Gohan slapped his forehead and shook it back and fourth. He wasn't even of this world and somehow he would have done a better job then that.

The Kage had a puzzled look over his face along with the guards, "Uh well ok then." Not believing a word of it. "We our in your debt as a village for returning Relia to us, so if need anything let me know now."

"Ah yeah, there are a couple of things we need… nothing huge. We would like a room for the night to rest in and secondly could you give us some information about this War between the Leaf, Sand, Sound and Cloud Villages if it's not too much." Naruto asked.

The Kage tilted his head, 'What could they hope to gain from that information, plus all that i know but one thing is public knowledge and they should know too.' Standing up he responded, "Your first request shall be granted, once we are done here these 4 will escort you to your apartment for the night. The second you should already know but just to indulge, i'll lay it out straight." he coughed to clear his throat, "The Leaf and Sound have been constantly spying on each other since 4 years ago when the Sound attacked the Leaf in surprise with the help of the Sand. The Hidden Leaf managed to counter back the two villages and succeeded in stopping the village from being destroyed. Once the Sand found that the Sound had tricked them and had killed their Kage, they declared war on the Sound and the Leaf and Sand have been allies ever since, even though nothing officially has been announced. Two years ago, the Cloud Village began to side with the Sound and they too formed an alliance, why, i don't know.

"The only bit of information that is not public knowledge however, is what i have gathered from my intelligence. It appears the Grass too will be joining forces with the Sound and Cloud soon. They may plan on attack either the Leaf or Sand shortly." he finished in a depressed tone.

Naruto nodded, "Well thank-you for the information Mizukage, we'll now leave you to get back to work" Naruto said as they headed for the door.

"Wait!" he called, "Relia said you two 'flew' her back to the village. How is this possible?" The Mizukage asked disbelievingly.

"As a Kage, you should know.. anything's possible if you put your mind to it." The blonde smiled as the pair walked out of the room

The Mizukage eyed the duo as they went out of sight. He could feel huge power emanating from both the teens, but felt no malice. It was strange. Deciding to leave it be for the now, he would ask them about it tomorrow before they headed off. Right now had paper work to finish. Sighing he got back to work.

A few minutes later, the two brothers had reached their apartment for the night and they were finally free of the guards. Gohan let out a sigh of relief, "Phew, i didn't think they'd buy that stupid response you gave them, luckily they were probably willing to let it slide since we rescued a Village Member." He said whilst taking a capsule out of his pocket. He clicked and threw it into space beside him. With a lot of smoke and a loud 'poofing' sound later, what appeared to be a wardrobe appeared in it's place.

Naruto did the same taking another out of his pocket and throwing it into different space. "Yeah i know, i hate thinking on the spot like that, and don't tell me you could have done any better Gohan!" As the smoke cleared a table full of food appeared out of thin air.

"I probably could have, but it was funny to see you squirm. Come on lets eat, i'm starving!" Gohan stifled another laugh as they both ravaged through food infront of them.

After a few minutes the two sat down with full stomachs. "Man that was good, mom cooks the best food." The Z warrior concluded. Naruto could only nod vigorously, Chi-Chi out did herself every time. Finally they were able to move again.

"I think it's best if we get some rest, we'll need it for tomorrow." Naruto told Gohan.

"Ok, so what's part 2 of this mission of your's?" He asked

Naruto grinned, "Well we've already completed that phase since we gathered all the information we could from the Mizukage."

"Right.. so what's the next step?"

"Getting into Konoha, and i've got the perfect idea to achieve it." He laughed as he walked into his bedroom and shut the door. Gohan sighed, somehow knew, tomorrow was going to be even longer than today.

End Chapter Notes

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